SaaStr

A social community of 500,000+ SaaS founders and executives and over 3,000,000 views a month dedicated to sharing the best learnings, insights and practices around building and scaling SaaS businesses.  From nothing, to Initial Traction, to Initial Scale, and beyond.

Paying back and sharing key learnings (hard knock and otherwise) from going from $1m to $100m+ in SaaS.

Continuing to work on ways to do this bigger and more effectively than ever.

Puts on www.SaaStrAnnual.com and SaaStrEuropa.com for 15,000+ SaaS Founders.  PLEASE COME!! :)

#1 enterprise & SaaS blog / content / writer on Quora.

Trusted Advisor

Out of a $100,000,000+ venture fund, we lead $250k-$5m initial investments in great SaaS companies with founders that are Better Than Us.  Generally, with at Least 10 Unaffiliated Customers.

We've done some good ones, including leading the very first or very early VC investments in Algolia, Automile, Logikcull, Mixmax, Pipedrive, PlatoHQ, SalesLoft, Talkdesk, MaestroQA, HelloOffice, Gorgias.io, Mapistry, RevenueCat, Owner, Treasury Prime and others.  I also serve as an advisor or smaller investor in Showpad, Front, Intercom, Greenhouse, Retention Science, Sqreen.io / Datadog, among other emerging leaders.

Investor & Founder Champion

Adobe Systems

Adobe Sign / EchoSign from Adobe is the leading 100% web-based e-signature and contract automation service with 1.1m customers and 16m users and used by 9/10 of the top leaders on the web, Facebook, Google, Pandora, Workday, Groupon, Twitter, LivingSocial, Yelp, Oracle, SAP, Coca-Cola, Dell, Citrix, VMWare, EMC, Taleo, Successfactors, Mastercard, you name it.

In March 2013, Adobe announced EchoSign and the Web Services business had hit $64,000,000 in ARR at Q1'13 and $140,000,000+ ARR by FYE'13, and $400,000,000 ARR by Q1'16.

                                                                 -----------

More than 95% of all documents that are digitally signed use the Adobe family of products:  Acrobat, Reader, LiveCycle, and since July 2011, #1 ranked EchoSign.  

And you can start using EchoSign for free from any browser.  http://www.echosign.com   #thepowerofadobe

Vice President, Web Business Services

Adobe Sign / EchoSign is the next great on-demand sales tool.  It is simply the fastest and easiest way to get contracts signed, tracked, and filed.  E-signature or fax signature.  Our 5,000,000 users and 50,000+ customers (including leaders such as Google, Facebook, Pandora, Groupon, American Express, Comcast, Aetna, Twitter, LivingSocial, BT, GE, Qualcomm, CIGNA, Dow Jones, P&G, American Express, Facebook, Dell, TimeWarner, Delta Airlines, Symantec, VMware, AOL, Citrix, Nationwide, UnitedHealthcare and many more) close deals on average in just 42 minutes using EchoSign.  Send, Sign, Done.  We're profitable, we're doing cool things -- and WE ARE HIRING!

Adobe Sign / EchoSign was acquired by Adobe in July 2011 and was backed by Emergence Capital, me, friends, and other investors.

Co-founder, ceo

NanoGram Devices Corp

At NanoGram Devices we pioneered using nanotechnology to dramatically enhance the performance of power sources for implantable medical devices.  NDC technology enables implantable defibrillators and pacemakers to last years longer -- saving lives.  NDC was acquired by the market leader for speciality power sources, Greatbatch Inc. (NYSE: GB) for ~$50,000,000.

NanoSVO was qualified for implantable use in 2007 and has since gone on to extend/save thousands of lives.

Served as VP, Corp Dev @ affiliate NeoPhotonics Corp

Co-Founder, President

NeoPhotonics

I was brought in by the CEO and the Board to investigate and commercialize new uses for the Company's technology at revenue zero.  Ultimately, I helped the CEO focus the core business on telecommunications and raise $30m in venture capital, and then licensed its nascent technology for implantable power sources, using that to start and co-found NanoGram Devices (see above).

NeoPhotonics has since gone on to a successful IPO on the NYSE and a multi-hundred million dollar revenue business.

Vice President, Strategic Development

BabyCenter

Since its founding, BabyCenter has been the leading destination on the Internet for new and expectant parents.  According to Alexa it is the 300th highest trafficked U.S. site on the 'net, dwarfing all competitors.  

Consumer Health Interactive; Johnson & Johnson; eToys

Sr. Director, Corporate Development

Helping, founding, funding, and growing B2B start-ups.  Making it a positive-sum game for everyone involved.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Specialties: helping people grow and become their best.  doing not the impossible, but the unlikely.  never giving up.

Join us IRL at SaastrAnnual.com

So are you are a "startup person"?  I mean, for real?

If so, you won't be happier if you:

* Take it easier 
* Go join a BigCo to coast
* Quietly do the same thing every day
* Stick it out for a decent salary
* Ignore work after 4pm
* Don't own anything
* Don't make something that matters better

At some point, everyone has to hang it up.  At some point, we just can't do the crazy things, climb another peak, do it all again.  At that point, find the easy path.  Find the greener path.  

Until then, expect some frustration.  Expect a little "grass is greener" feeling when you see folks seemingly working less and making more.  Expect once in a while, wondering if it's worth it.  Expect a boss that cares as much to push you harder than you want to be pushed, from time to time.  

But this is you.  

This is path that chose you.  It's not always one that makes you zen, or happy, or even content.

But it's the one that challenges you.  The one that keeps you young at heart, engaged.  The one that fills every single day. 

Stay on that path. 

Jason M. Lemkin

Andrew Dillon

Hungry First Time "Head of Sales"

Vs

CRO now mainly spending time on LinkedIn

Dee Acosta 📱

First timer's guide to working directly with a CEO:

1.  Meet your deadlines.
2.  Be positive.
3.  Raise your hand for help.
4.  Be transparent and don't hide stuff.
5.  Own something you weren't asked to own.

That is it.

Yes, late 2020 and 2021 were crazy.  1,000+ Unicorns, massive spend.  But here's the thing -- it made sense.  Because the growth was there.

We looked at 9 SaaS leaders in Q1'22, and you can see even as the stock markets began to fall, revenue for these leaders was still an epic 67%.

Fast forward just 24 months?  Down to 23%

Still growing for sure.  Growth is real.  But that much harder.  For the very best.

There’s an AI Backlash happening now in the enterprise in particular

Many vendors have promised big results and not delivering, especially in automation

Promising to automate 50% of your contact center with AI, of your interactions with AI, etc.

No one is hitting it

The genie isn’t going back in the bottle, customers are committed to the goal.  But vendors have way over promised across the board.

This is especially tough on those of us in SaaS that want to underpromise and over deliver.  Very hard to do in AI functionality in SaaS today when your competitor is making much bolder claims.

2008: SaaS is Really Hard
… 2016: SaaS is Really Hard

2017: SaaS is a Great Business
2018: Everyone Invests in SaaS
2019: SaaS Eating the World
2020: I’m Genius
2021: King of World!
2022: Nothing Makes Sense

2023: SaaS is Really Hard
2024: SaaS Still Hard But Smidge Less So

Chad Jardine

A great sales rep does most of the work for the prospect:

⏰ Does the scheduling
🖥️ Does the demos
🛠️ Solves the problem
👫 Helps sell other stakeholders
🙋‍♀️ Follows up
⏫ Simplifies deployment

Yes, this is a lot more work than sending a Calendly link the next day, I do admit.

Also … this is why enterprise buyers love the very best reps.  They do a ton of the work for them.

Before you hire an enterprise or mid-market rep, ask them for 2-3 customer references.  The best ones can do it easily.  The rest don’t have any.

So recently, for the first time ever, I called in some favors.  Very minor ones, but just to get a little help as SaaStr goes into busy season.

1️⃣  I asked a CRO I've worked with for quite a while and got one of his prior roles for him if he wanted to do our podcast with me sometime in the coming weeks.   I didn't need the content, but it would save me a tiny bit of work.  He said No.  Not later, but just ... "No".

2️⃣ I asked a founder that I got their last role where they made millions if they'd do a call with a founder I invested in.  He said "If you really, really, really need me to, but ..." 

3️⃣ I asked a VC who I referred a one billon+ cash exit to if he could send an email just helping on something.  Barely an ask.  But he didn't do it.

4️⃣ I asked a CMO who I've promoted many times over the years just if he had an idea of someone I could talk to a certain company.  Just who ran something in marketing.  He said he knew the contact, but wouldn't share who it was.  

I get that everyone is "hitting snooze" on things these days.  The fact alone that "hitting snooze" on things has become part of our collective vocabulary probably says a lot right there.  I just didn't realize how far it had all gone.

Also it may ... be me.  Perhaps it is me.  Perhaps I didn't earn these favors.  I never ask for any.  But the team is lean, and they were small ones, so I asked for the first time in 12+ years for some small ones, just to help me over a hump.

Is 2024 the Year of "Hitting Snooze" on anything that doesn't help you personally ASAP? 

Maybe.

Michael Burn

It is a lot of work to switch vendors.  A total pain.

So be very embarrassed when you lose an existing customer to the competition.  And really find out why.  No one wants to switch if they don't need to.

And -- do something about it before it happens again

Brandon Flowers

So the other day a CEO of a 500+ person startup asked me what I thought about a negative Glassdoor review. It was from a trusted employee who had just left, that was clear. 

The points made in the review, like most feedback, had some germs of truth as far as I could tell.  Most criticism does, even when it's wrapped in some that perhaps doesn't.  I told him there were some good take-aways.

But that's actually not my point.

The real point is he knew exactly who wrote it, even with 500+ employees.

And this is my only real point to you:  don't write it.  Don't write that negative Glassdoor.  Don't write that tweet, or that scathing 10 paragraph exit note on LinkedIn.  Especially don't send that email.

It doesn't help.  It won't help your career.  It may feel empowering for a moment -- I get that.  We all feel unempowered at times, myself included.

But just don't do it.  Or if you do -- at least assume your new employer, your new next partner, your next job will see it.  Even if they don't ask.  They'll see it.  Maybe ask someone you trust to read it first. 

I know we all need to vent.  But -- there's no upside to doing it anywhere in public. 

Be kind

To your coworker that made a mistake, even a big one 

Be kind

To your cofounder that was great for a while, but just can't go much further 

Be kind

To your boss that did great things for you, even if later they took advantage 

Be kind

To the ones that tried

Jason Whitman

Does outbound still work?

It’s funny, two of my fastest growing investments sell to SMBs. 1-2 call closes, low ACVs.

One has mostly abandoned outbound. Doesn’t move the needle and was a big distraction. The other has doubled down here and seen it grow to 30%+ of new customers. Different industries, different teams.  

But most importantly, perhaps, different CROs. Different DNA.

We can all agree the old “break up email” sequences run by kids straight out of school has very limited effectiveness today.

It doesn’t mean outbound is dead though

I think what’s most important in 2024 is that outbound truly adds value to the prospect. The break-up email chain never did. 

Email remains a magical thing. If the email is strong, and importantly, the value strong — it will get opened and it will get read.

That’s something right there

Dave VanderJagt

Many SaaS companies that sell to SMBs take while to get to 100%+ NRR

Many like Toast, HubSpot, etc. didn't hit it until IPO

You start with the smallest customers,
You start with a simple product,
You start with easy

Then you learn how to make it even stickier + higher value

The Top 5 Things You Should Know Before Starting a SaaS Startup:

1️⃣ It will take you at least 24 months to really get anywhere. 

Everyone mentally budgets 10–12 months. It’s never enough. At least, not to get enough paying customers from Code Zero. 

2️⃣ A co-founder not equally committed will blow up on you, and best case, is a disaster you will have to clean up later. 

Almost always. Wait and find a co-founder just as committed as you are.

3️⃣ Someone else great already has the same idea. Like, always. It’s OK. That’s the way it should be. So ask yourself — why will you win? 

Answer that instead of worrying about being first.  Too many founders aren’t honest about why they will win.

4️⃣ If you’re a “business” founder, know it’s really, really hard to win without a truly great CTO.  

If you aren’t sure if your technical co-founder is good enough, ask the top engineering leader you know what she thinks.

5️⃣ Make 100% sure the market will actually pay for your product.  Not just like it.  

This is a top mistake so many founders make.  They build a useful product, but not one the market values so much they will pay for it.  At least do 30+ customer interviews and really listen on if they’d paid for real, and then go validate that some more.

So recently I've had hiring conversations with several VPs and senior Directors at leading tech companies.  

I almost never ask anyone how much they make. I don't care and it's not me. But in this case, I was talking with folks thinking of making the jump to startups. Usually more scale-ups, at $20m+ ARR or later. But looking to make the jump.

So I took the opportunity to ask how much they make today, in today's environment. None worked at OpenAI or the handful of public companies on massive stock tears. No, they all worked at slightly more mature SaaS leaders.

And one way or another, they all made about $800,000 a year working at big, public SaaS / Cloud companies as senior but still "mid/senior"-level managers.  Folks that are responsible for a lot, but aren't at or close to the top layer of management.

Base salaries varied. Some was in RSUs (not options), which are basically guaranteed cash if you stay. Some was in bonus. Some was discretionary. But add it all together, at least 6 folks I talked to made $800,000 a year, plus or minus, more or less. 

Now obviously in theory you can make far more if you joined Datadog pre-IPO, or Cloudflare a few years back, or Planatir in the early days. Of course you can make millions and millions in the right senior role at the hottest startups. Or even today, at certain leaders post-IPO, at the very top especially. 

But when you go to hire a VP that was a seasoned Director or just above at a public SaaS company, that's likely the bar to compete with.

So if you want to pay them say $140k plus some equity to take a risk:

1️⃣ First, make sure first that's a fair ask. 
2️⃣ Second, that they can really do it (many can't). 
And
3️⃣ Third, that you know what they are giving up.

This is especially true at SaaS leaders where growth has slowed. If the stock price is flat, but the cash flow is strong (many are very profitable today), they know for the best, they have to pay up in cash. And they do. 

Can you really compete here? And do you even want to, other than for the very best candidates? Probably only for the very, very best.  Let the rest self select out.  

Taplio

Jason M. Lemkin's Linkedin Analytics

Jason M. Lemkin

Who is engaging with Jason M.

Jason M. Lemkin's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Jason M. Lemkin's Linkedin Analytics

Jason M. Lemkin

Who is engaging with Jason M.

Jason M. Lemkin's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Jason M. Lemkin's Linkedin Analytics

Jason M. Lemkin's Best Posts (last 30 days)